Problems of the implementation of the principles of legitimate expectations, legal certainty and legal safety in the sphere of higher education

Abstract

This paper focuses on the aspects of reform connected with the constitutionally guaranteed right to a free of charge higher education for the students that show good achievement results and also to the aspect of the fixing of fees for students not funded by the government. The results of the survey show that the majority of respondents did not understand the aims of the reforms conducted by politicians, which makes it difficult to feel secure about the future of Lithuanian high schools. The conclusions offered here are that the reforms enacted in Lithuanian higher education, in particular in connection with tuition, are only partially linked to the principles of legitimate expectations, legal safety and legal certainty. The fact that the Law of Higher Education and Studies, as initiated during the reform, is applied only for new entrants to the colleges and universities is assessed according to the principle lex retro non agit, but the fact that there were no concrete objectives to the reform, which itself was followed by changes in legal regulation, made students feel a lack of legal safety and legal certainty.